Healthy snacks for teenagers

Teenagers are often too busy to have a proper, healthy, nutritious meal. Most of them are in a constant rush between school, sports activities, their part time jobs, and partying with their friends. Whenever they make a pause to eat something, they typically pick up something that falls under the great umbrella of fast foods: hamburgers, French fries, sandwiches, potato chips or something sweet. Unfortunately, this simply is not enough to maintain a good health. A typical teenager’s day should include a lot of healthy snacks to keep the energy level steady during the whole day and to provide the body with fantastic benefits of nutrient rich food.

Teenagers are very special population, since they normally need more calories as their body’s still grows. Smart snacking can help them satisfy all of the needs their body has for various vitamins and minerals, and keep their energy levels at the optimum level throughout the day. One of the most important benefits teenagers can get from such a healthy diet plan is that it helps to avoid weight gain. Diet should include a lot of complex carbohydrates and exclude simple ones like sugar and soda drinks. Combined with protein rich snacks, fruits and vegetables, and low fat yogurt and cheese, whole-grain breads and cereals are a fantastic choice.

Sliced fresh fruits should always be somewhere around teenagers. Parents can simply slice mangoes, apples, pears, kiwi, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, cherries or other seasonal fruits, to prepare a healthy snack for their busy teen.

Peanut butter and whole-grain crackers are also energy rich foods that a teenager can easily carry to school or to work, and enjoy quick energy refill, whenever he or she feels hungry.

Popcorn is another healthy option. It is best to prepare popcorn without any butter and sold. Plain popcorn is fun to eat, but they are also fantastic energy boosters, which promote healthy bowel movements and the feeling of satiety.

Teenagers usually enjoy sweets, but the standard chocolate bars and cookies are not the healthiest option available. It would be the best to shift from standard candies to fiber rich grain cookies and raw chocolate varieties. Besides from being delicious, fibers and cocoa will offer great health benefits to the kids.

Yogurt is another great source of nutrients. It is very rich in proteins and therefore, meets daily nutrient requirements of teenagers. The best variety is low-fat fresh plain yogurt, but a teenager can also enjoy differently flavored fruit yogurts.